07/09/13 - Lands End - Speci

Weight - 64lb 4oz (6lb 10oz - silvers)
Catch - 10 Carp, 2 Skimmers, 2 Perch, 1 Tench, 1 Roach
Weather - Sunshine & showers
Match - Open - 3rd out of 11

I had planned to fish at Sedges today (Sunday), but I had a gentle reminder from Sue that it is our wedding anniversary – 13^th years – where does the time go? So I thought it best to stay home.

There was 11 of us on Speci, which included a couple of Acorn rejects. As most of us know Acorns has closed Paddocks Lake until the end of September, following some fish deaths. They were told to close for a week, but credit where credit is due they made the decision to close for a month. They have also banned meat with immediate effect and it will be interesting to see whether they cut back on the number of matches in the future. Speaking to Mike before the draw he reckons it takes 8 years for a lake to properly settle and he said in the early years he lost a lot fish. It also proves the point that over stocking a lake only has short term benefits and some angler’s obsession with huge weights needs to be tempted for the welfare of the fish.

Following a warm week, Thursday saw a drop in temperature and the first indication that autumn is on its way. P33 was my home for the day, with Mark Walsh on p34, Jamie Dyte opposite on p32 and Tom Mangnall on p31. I don’t actually like 33, because it’s the same depth all over the peg, with no shelf to fish on to. Even with the water level being down I still felt the peg would be too deep to catch properly. At least my rigs would do for all over the peg, 1 for meat and the other for hair rigged pellet. A shallow rig completed the set up for the day.

On the all in, the sun was shining, but the majority of my peg was in the shade. Following the cool overnight temperature, I decided to start on the deck, feeding meat down the left hand bank and 6s by the aerator. After an hour I had 4 carp, 3 on meat and the other on 6mm pellet, but the fishing was slow.

As the sun came round more of my peg was bathed in sunshine and a few fish were starting to show shallow by the aerator. So I tried the shallow rig for 15mins, however without success. Rather than persist trying to catch shallow, I decided to focus catching on the deck. I also binned feeding meat along the end bank, changing to pellet, simply to make it easier to switch between swims.

By continually feeding 6s via a large toss pot, I started to get indication by the aerator, but actually hooking the buggers in the mouth was proving frustrating with 4 lost fish on the bounce, before landing one hooked in the mouth.

Unfortunately a heavy rain shower meant no bites for a while. I persevered regularly feeding 6s via a toss pot, with the occasionally cup of pellet when I needed to rest the swim and the fish came back. Foul hooking was still a problem and the fish just didn’t settle. The strange thing was the fish were being foul hooked on the deck and those hooked properly were in the top lip, so I’m sure the 0.2g rig was right. To be fair everyone seemed to be struggling with foul hookers.

Mark didn’t fish longer than 6m, so there was a lot of fish by the island, which benefited Tom on 31 and Andy Hembrow on p36 who both caught the majority of their fish shallow by the island. On the all out Tom & Andy would contest 1^st & 2^nd, but 3^rd place was very much up for grabs and fortunately I managed to sneak it with my 9^th pick up in the last 10 matches.

1^st 107- 8 – Tom Mangnall – p31
2^nd 96- 2 – Andy Hembrow – p36
3^rd 64- 4 – Ken Rayner – p33
4^th 59-14 – Jamie Dyte – p32
5^th 56- 6 – Dave Wescott – p29
6^th 56- 4 – Mark Walsh – p34 

Silvers

1^st 20- 2 – Nigel Bartlett – p40

2^nd 17- 6 – Mark Walsh – p34